Safari Lodge or Luxury Stay Near Kruger? What Are You Actually Paying For?

It is not quite the same decision

When people start planning a luxury Kruger holiday, there is a fairly natural assumption:

If you want the best experience, book a luxury safari lodge.

There are some exceptional ones, and for the right trip we would happily stay at one.

But they are not the only way to do Kruger well.

Before spending a very large amount of money, it is worth asking what part of the experience you actually want.

Do you want to live inside a private Big Five reserve for several days?

Or do you want excellent safaris, beautiful accommodation, very good food, privacy and people looking after you properly?

Those things can be bought as one package.

They do not have to be.

Why are private safari lodges expensive?

Because you are paying for much more than a bedroom.

A typical luxury safari lodge rate may include the room, meals, game drives, specialist guides, access to a private reserve, drinks and other extras.

The reserve itself is a substantial part of what you are buying.

That is entirely reasonable.

Maintaining a wildlife reserve and delivering a high-end safari operation is expensive.

And if your dream holiday is to wake up in the reserve, go on two game drives a day and spend the rest of the time surrounded by wildlife, it can be an extraordinary experience.

The question is whether that is what you want **every day of the trip**.

What if you only want a few safaris?

This is where the calculation changes.

Perhaps you want one full day in Kruger.

Perhaps another morning.

You also want to see the Panorama Route.

You would quite like one day by the pool.

Maybe a massage.

Maybe absolutely nothing.

At a safari lodge, you are still paying for the reserve and the safari infrastructure every night, whether you use all of it or not.

At The Zarafa, the decisions are separate.

Stay with us because you like the villa, food, setting and service.

Then go into Kruger whenever you want safari.

Phabeni Gate is 17 km away.

We can arrange the drive for you.

If you decide the next day that the pool is winning, stay at the pool.

The Zarafa is not without wildlife

This is worth explaining properly.

The lodge is set within a wildlife estate, and there are a limited number of animals around the estate.

So you are still very much in the Lowveld rather than staying in a conventional hotel in town.

You may see animals around the estate during your stay.

What we do not have is the density and variety of wildlife of Kruger or a large private reserve.

We are not a Big Five lodge.

We do not pretend to be one.

For the serious wildlife experience, you go into Kruger.

For everything that happens before and afterwards, you come back to The Zarafa.

We care quite a lot about the room

Safari holidays sometimes treat accommodation as though it is simply somewhere to sleep between game drives.

We have never really understood that.

You spend a substantial part of the holiday where you are staying.

At The Zarafa, every villa has its own pool and its own outdoor space.

There is plenty of room.

There is privacy.

And the villa is somewhere we hope you will actually want to spend time.

If you return from a morning safari at lunchtime, the afternoon does not need another activity simply to justify itself.

You already have somewhere good to be.

The service matters too

This is probably the part of The Zarafa we are most particular about.

We have five villas.

That makes things easier.

We get to know our guests.

We tend to remember what people drink.

We know who would like another coffee without asking and who wants to sit quietly for a while.

If you tell us before dinner that there is something you do not eat, the kitchen can work around it.

If you are celebrating something, we know about it.

It is not formal service for the sake of looking luxurious.

It is simply paying attention.

And because there are only a few people staying with us, we can do more of it.

Food should be part of the experience

Dinner is five courses.

The menu changes each evening and follows a different country.

Breakfast is included as well.

That means coming home from Kruger does not involve another decision about where to eat.

Have a shower.

Get changed.

Have a drink.

Come to dinner.

We have always thought a safari day should finish properly.

So why can The Zarafa cost considerably less?

Because you are buying something different.

You are not paying for a private Big Five reserve.

You are not automatically paying for two game drives every day.

You are not paying for safari infrastructure on a day when you want to spend six hours beside your pool.

That allows us to offer a very high standard of accommodation, food and personal service at a much lower price than many luxury safari lodges.

We do not think the lower price should mean a lesser room, lesser meal or lesser service.

Quite the opposite.

Those are the things we concentrate on.

What are you giving up?

The full private-reserve experience.

That is the honest answer.

At a safari lodge, there may be elephants moving through the property, predators somewhere in the reserve and the sense that wildlife is around you all the time.

The Zarafa has wildlife around the estate, but not on that scale.

If that full immersion is the thing you most want from the holiday, choose a private reserve.

It is worth doing at least once if your budget allows it.

But do not assume that paying more automatically means every part of the stay will suit you better.

What do you gain?

Freedom, mostly.

Kruger one day.

The Panorama Route the next.

A late breakfast.

A massage.

An afternoon at your own pool.

Another safari because yesterday\’s was so good.

Or no safari because you have already spent a week on game drives elsewhere.

You decide.

And there is another advantage that is not quite as romantic but matters nonetheless:

you may have a significant amount of money left for the rest of your holiday.

Is The Zarafa a cheaper safari lodge?

No.

That is not what we are trying to be.

We are a small luxury lodge near Kruger, within a wildlife estate of our own.

There are animals around us, but we are not selling a private Big Five safari reserve.

We concentrate on the parts we can do exceptionally well:

the villas;

the private pools;

the food;

the privacy;

and the service.

Kruger takes care of the lions.

We think that is a fairly good division of responsibilities.

What would we choose?

If we were coming to South Africa for the first time and the budget allowed it, we would probably combine the two.

Spend two or three nights at a good private safari lodge.

Do the early drives.

Stay in the reserve.

Have that experience properly.

Then come to The Zarafa.

Unpack.

Sleep a little later.

Swim.

See the Panorama Route.

Go back into Kruger if you want another safari.

Have dinner somewhere you already know you will enjoy.

The two experiences complement one another very well.

And you do not need to pay private-reserve rates for the entire Lowveld part of the trip.

Our answer

A luxury safari lodge is worth the money when what you really want is the private-reserve experience.

But if what matters to you is **excellent accommodation, good food, privacy, genuinely personal service and easy access to Kruger**, there is another way to do it.

Stay somewhere you love coming back to.

Safari when you want to safari.

Enjoy the rest of the Lowveld when you do not.

Spend less without treating the accommodation as the place where you compromise.

That is the version of a Kruger holiday we built The Zarafa around.

The other evergreens

I reviewed the themes across the rest of the set. **Guides 1--7, 9, 11 and 13 do not need substantial rewriting because of the wildlife point.** They describe The Zarafa as being outside **Kruger**, which is correct, rather than saying that the lodge itself has no wildlife setting.

There is, however, one small phrase I would add to **Guide 09 --- Accommodation Near Phabeni Gate**. In the section headed **"Why stay at The Zarafa?"**, I would amend the opening to:

The practical reason is that Phabeni is close. The setting is another: The Zarafa is within a wildlife estate, so although we are not a Big Five reserve, you still have the bush and some of its animals around you.

The better reasons are:

- every villa has its own pool;

- there are only five villas;

- breakfast and dinner are included;

- it is adults only;

- private safaris can be arranged;

- the Panorama Route is easy to reach;

- and you have somewhere worth coming back to.

I particularly like the line in Guide 12:

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